Simply Stunning

Here at UCSB one of the things that our sports information department does is select an athlete or two from different sports team and has them write a diary for the season. A lot of times this is in the form of how the season is going and the expectations for the season, etc. Then of course there is the case of the volleyball player selected.

"January 16, 2008
Santa Barbara, ring the bell, school is back in session. The New Year has arrived with new growth. The rains washed away all the ash and all the grit and grime, the Zaca Fire made our summer a caustic one. We fell as the days kept getting shorter and finally with Santa Ana Winds the ash fell one last time on Santa Barbara, just in time for the holidays. The sun reached its highest point in the Southern Hemisphere on December 21st and shortly after this solstice, nourishing rains came to Santa Barbara pushing the ash back into the soil. It is a time for new plans to be made for this new period of the elevating sun. Together we rise, together we fall.

UCSB is the best school in the world. How lucky we are to find ourselves here, now. For all you out-of-towners who come to Isla Vista, black out and bloody up Del Playa Street, get a grip, get a hobby, find a passion. We have had way too many weekend nights ruined by a corpse. Think of all the people it takes to raise a child proper and how fragile life is before you let go of the reins in our backyard. For all you visitors who come to I.V. give love and respect, we give it right back to you and we welcome your kind. For all you who hate on cops while they are working the grave shift reflect on this: Cops sprint to trouble and distress while everyone else runs away. For all you cops who write tickets for biking through a stop sign, I say to you: Get back to work�I guarantee there is harder crime out there. For all you sorority girls biking around with a coffee in your hand and a cell phone in your ear: Careful dear, talk less and say more. Your word is a currency and sadly many of your economies suffer from inflation. For all you young healthy beautiful people out there who burn time checking out pictures of yourself on Facebook: Check your egos, find a passion - someone out there may need your help, but they can't read your mind and they'll never find you if you live inside your own head. For all you bums who use our shower: I have nothing against people getting clean, but please respect our space. For whomever owns Pita Pit: Hire a manager. For all peoples of the world: Turn off the T.V., there is a thin line between boredom and fatigue. Maybe all y'all need is a little stimulation.

Ice cold blood courses through my hand, sometimes it goes dead to the world all ghostly pale, but we don't stop. Captain told me to damn all the torpedoes. This Gaucho holds his pistol with a cold dead hand and I only shoot to kill. In my territory, I am the law. To shake my hand on the court when it is cold is like shaking with the Grim Reaper, to shake when it is hot is to hold weaponry cast in the furnaces of Hephaestus and that's just one car in a steaming train twenty five deep, constantly building momentum. Each of us is just one link in a chain. Like the dirty dozen we are a rag tag group, a pack of Gauchos who ride together throughout the West picking fights with all comers and Santa Barbara, my love, we are always coming home to you, we fight for you and your children, to give them something to believe in. Our gym may be the dirtiest thing in sight, but it is our home and no one comes into our kitchen and pushes us around. Trust me, you don't want to bring a knife to a gun fight, son.
Peace, love, unity."
*courtesy www.ucsbgauchos.com

I'm still questioning how this got through Sports information and onto the website.